When you get to my point you drink a shot of espresso before going to bed, and it doesn’t effect you.
I’m from the bay area, and I will make the statement that I think Ritual is better than Ecco. My personal favorite is probably Blue Bottle, then Ritual, with Sightglass coffee in a close third. I’ve never been to Four Barrel coffee, so I can’t comment on that. Then you have other USA roasters like Intelligentsia, Stumptown, and Backporch coffee. I’ve been drinking Verve here and there and they have some great single origin beans too. The other good beans I’ve had in California came from Flying Goat Coffee in Sonoma County, and Barefoot Coffee in San Jose.
My setup is a 2-cup V-60, a Hario Mini-mill grinder, a Hario Buono kettle, a digital scale, and those Hario paper filters. I’m not a high volume coffee drinker, however if I drink it, I want it to be good.
edit: If anyone wants to consider trying Blue bottle or Ritual, they’ll ship it to you by the pound, priority mail. You will need to find a way to grind it though.
http://www.bluebottlecoffee.net/coffee/single-origins/
http://ritual.myshopify.com/collections/coffee
I’ve never ordered from Ritual because they’re fairly close and a local grocery store stocks their beans a day after roast date too, but I have ordered Blue Bottle before. The beans were roasted on the 4th, I received them on the 5th, and it was one pound of the sweetest smelling and most interesting coffee I’ve had in a while.
I never used to drink coffee until about last year. I’m not the biggest fan of it since I don’t like bitter things in general, so my coffee is usually flavoured. I consider myself an occasional coffee drinker, which is good because it isn’t all that good for you.
Coffee doesn’t have to be all that bitter. High quality coffee has somewhere around 800 different flavor varietals, as opposed to wine, which has around 300. (I read this in Wired about two months ago. They did an article about Coffee sourcing and selection.) If you go to a roaster or a cafe that has high quality beans, you can find flavors of any type. Where one bean might taste like fried peaches, another could be described as powdered sugar, or orange creamsicle.
Also, high volumes (up to 8 cups a day, 2 cups minimum. lol) of coffee have been shown to reduce the risk of certain types of cancer. Otherwise, yeah, it’s not the healthiest drink around. Many people I know that are opposed to the flavor of coffee have never had a high quality beans. If you have tried it, and still didn’t like it very much, I’d recommend trying a different bean or roaster. My girlfriend usually adds milk to her coffee, but there was one bean she tried last month that she would only drink black.
Interesting info. I’m a fan of vanilla-flavoured coffee, myself. I’m not a connoisseur by any means, but I wouldn’t mind trying out different beans as you said.
I appreciate the consideration. For the sake of clarification, when you say vanilla-flavored are you implying that the beans themselves have been infused with some sort of vanilla or the coffee (or espresso) has had some sort of vanilla flavored additive (creamer, syrup, etc.)? Because when I say they have different flavors, I’m saying that the flavors you find are inherent to the beans themselves and not a product of some sort of tampering. If you already knew that this is what I meant, you have no need to read further.
Wine is a fairly good analogy for coffee. When you grow grapes, they often take on characteristics of the soil they’re grown in. This can cause the wine to produce certain types of flavors that are inherent to the grapes themselves. Coffee is the same way. The beans bought/sold by high quality roasters come from good regions of countries with good climate and soil for coffee, or the coffee farmers hybridize their beans in order to produce a unique style. The flavors produced are then a byproduct of the conditions in which the coffee grows, plus the style of the roast. Then, you have your method of preparation, grind style, grind consistency, water temperature, water cleanliness, type of filter, bloom time, ratio of coffee beans to water, and the flavor of the coffee also changes as the coffee cools down once prepared.
So when I say that a coffee has a vanilla flavor, or a powdered sugar flavor, I’m saying that if a cup is produced from those beans, the result is reminiscent of vanilla or powdered sugar. I hope that this all makes sense.
Impossible. He’s a witch! Brew him!
The vanilla coffee that I drink is just instant coffee, which probably has additives in it. I want to try the actual vanilla bean. I didn’t even know the beans themselves could take on different flavours. I thought they were all the same.
you guys should try Vietnamese iced-coffee if you haven’t already. 
I like coffee mostly because of the morning dump that comes right after.
Lately i found something really cool: Moonpie flavored Coffee!
http://www.memphisflyer.com/HungryMemphis/archives/2012/10/02/moonpie-coffee-it-exists
http://www.drugstorenews.com/article/moonpie-white-coffee-serve-flavored-coffee-line
http://www.memphisflyer.com/binary/8ba1/1349199958-moonpiecoffeephoto.jpg
^^ Found it at a biglots. Bought the Banana because its the original moonpie flavor and seemed like it would be the most distinctive. So far its been great.
And when i say flavored, pretty sure theres no sugar or anything else in it. Actually tasted the grounds raw a bit and didn’t detect anything. Good because i like my coffee black.
Speaking of which, why the @$%& don’t they put nutrition labels on coffee?
damn. i miss coffee. coffee and chocolate.
but ever since my hypothyroidism hit me in 02, i can’t have any caffiene whatsoever. not even a sip.
hits me like poison.
completely throws off my delicate metabolism/hormones and makes me feel like i’mma gonna die.
i don’t even think its so much my thyroid that wont allow my to have any stimulants like coffee/chocolate/cocaine…as so much my adrenals.
hypothyroidism, especially if untreated for years like mine, causes adrenal fatigue/damage.
so i think its mostly my adrenals that bar me from havin any.
i can still have decaf…but decaf is like sex with rubbers. shit is nothing.
before my disease i useta drink 8 cups a day.
loved it.
I forgot this thread even existed!
I just picked up a bag of Verve Coffee’s Buena Vista beans. I’ve been brewing in a Clever Dripper lately. It’s awesome. French press flavor with the mess of a V60. Super clean, less cholesterol than French press, less sediment, and almost exactly the same flavor.
I’m a sucker for iced coffee
I’m a sucker for Vietnamese iced coffee T_T
Nutritional value of coffee?!
Vitamin JackUp :1500 IU
Addictanium: 10000 mg
lol
Man why is that archer farms pumpkin spice coffee tastes like tea more than coffee?!
and I too feel the pain of not being able to imbibe frequent coffee/hot chocolate, stupid allergies
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Drinking shitty yuban with no creamer 
I keep a strict and disciplined lifestyle regarding my diet, so i like to know whats in something. Now there are supposed to be laws saying they HAVE to show whats on the package if it contains anything like sugar. However, i’m skeptical because plenty of Alcoholic drinks don’t have a nutrition label either and you KNOW its loaded full of sugar and juice(ex: misc cheap wine brands).
And same goes for 99% of coffee i see. When it comes to plain coffee grounds this is no big deal, but in regards to flavored? Thats a different story. Have to look closer.
I have some pretty decent Pumpkin Spice, White Coffee brand, Coffee. Which is also the same company that put out the Moonpie flavors.
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Coffee is the lifeblood that fuels the dreams of champions. Also:
[media=youtube]ob7q8pSZZes[/media]
I love coffee I drink almost everyday. I like a little bit of milk or liquid creamer in it but not to much of it. Add a lil bit of sugar and we’re good to go. If powdered creamer is my only option, then I’ll drink it black. I hate using powdered creamer on some good joe